Young couple is turning over a massive $20,000 a MONTH with gym towels: Cheeky Winx

A couple who were fed up with ‘useless’ gym towels have started a business offering stylish, practical alternatives.

Kalinda Salla, 28, and fiancé Joel Miranda, 33, launched Cheeky Winx on March 7, 2021, with $40,000 worth of savings.

The Brisbane couple design the funky gym towels themselves and claim the material is quick drying, odour free, ultra absorbent and lightweight.

After 18 months of hard work and patience, the brand now turns over $20,000 per month.

After 18 months of hard work and patience, the brand now turns over $20,000 per month

‘We caught ourselves complaining about how ugly and useless all gym towels were and this is where we noticed that there was a gap in the market for bright and colourful gym towels,’ Kalinda told FEMAIL. 

‘Our goal was to set a new trend of using funky gym towels as this was such a bold untapped market.’ 

The took six months to launch the brand from product sampling too creating designs, and today the business operates from the couple’s spare room.

‘We made a few hasty decisions that led to some errors but have definitely learnt from those mistakes,’ Kalinda said.  

The colourful gym towels cost $29.95 and feature a range of patterns, such as tacos, pineapples, doughnuts, flowers, pizza and cats

The unique designs allows the brand to differentiate itself from others, and the pair have found there to be few competitors in Australia. 

‘Normal cotton towels and rags stay wet, causing them to grow bacteria and smell,’ Kalinda said. 

‘Whereas our gym towels are made from a special quick dry material which helps to prevent the formation of smelly odours and bacterial growth.’ 

The colourful gym towels cost $29.95 and feature a range of patterns, such as tacos, pineapples, doughnuts, flowers, pizza and cats.

Kalinda and Joel design the prints, but it can be ‘tricky’ as the pair have different tastes.

‘We engage with friends for input on colours and ideas and then take it to an artist to bring in to life,’ Kalinda said.

The took six months to launch the brand from product sampling too creating designs, and today the business operates from the couple’s spare room

In the first month of launching the brand turned over $5,000 which Kalinda said was ‘constant’ until September when they turned over $9,000. 

In February alone the brand hit a milestone and turned over $100,000. 

From there the brand has gone from strength to strength and gained more than 30,000 TikTok followers. 

‘Looking back, it would have been good to start making videos on TikTok earlier as this has been the biggest game changer with sales and brand awareness!’ she said.   

In the first month of launching the brand turned over $5,000 which Kalinda said was ‘constant’ until September when they turned over $9,000. In February alone the brand hit a milestone and turned over $100,000

In addition to gym towels, Cheeky Winx also sells beach towels and golf towels that can be purchased on the website

When asked what the hardest aspect is of running a business, Kalinda said it’s often difficult learning how to separate business from personal life. 

‘In the beginning there were days where we would have heaps of sales and others where we didn’t cover our ad spend,’ she said. 

‘The latter we would find a bit stressful and would find it a lot harder to switch off the business brain.

‘Second is getting the amount of stock to order right. We would debate over which designs would sell better and would find ourselves under ordering on some.’ 

In addition to gym towels, Cheeky Winx also sells beach towels and golf towels that can be purchased on the website.